Short-listing of candidates blamed for legislative registration delay
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Various difficulties concerning the documents required of legislative candidates have prompted political parties to take longer before submitting their lists of candidates to the General Elections Commission (KPU).
The KPU had set Dec. 29 as the deadline for parties to have submitted the names of their legislative candidates. However, none of the 24 parties had submitted their candidate lists to the commission by Friday, only three days before the deadline expires.
Pande Raja Silalahi, co-chairman of the New Indonesia Alliance Party (PIB), said his party needed longer to study the documents required of its candidates.
"We are trying to put only qualified candidates on our list as quality is our trademark. We have realized, however, that the process is very time-consuming," he told The Jakarta Post.
The PIB, which is chaired by noted economist Sjahrir, is one of new parties that has been declared eligible to contest the 2004 elections.
Indonesia will hold its legislative elections in April 2004 and first direct presidential election in July 2004.
Difficulties as regards the necessary documents have also been experienced by the big and established political parties.
The Golkar Party, which has more than 30 years of political experience, also said the processes involved were the main reason it would not submit the names of its legislative candidates right up until the last moment.
Party chairman Akbar Tandjung revealed on Friday that Golkar had formed a team especially to short-list the applicants for legislative candidacies.
"We are evaluating the all the criteria during the shortlisting process. All of this is designed to ensure that the best interests of the party are served," he told the press after providing guidelines for Golkar legislative candidates at the party's offices in West Jakarta.
Although the rough outline of the list of candidates had been drawn up, he said, it was not yet final.
"The list of candidates will be finalized as soon as the party issues a resolution on the matter," he said without giving a date.
Meanwhile, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, co-chairperson of the National Awakening Party (PKB), said that the shortlisting process was taking much longer than expected.
Despite the difficulties faced by the parties, KPU member Anas Urbaningrum said on Friday that the commission would not extend the deadline for the parties to submit their candidate lists.
Separately, Golkar's co-chairperson and Minister of Women's Empowerment, Sri Rejeki Soemaryoto, expressed concern over the lack of commitment on the part of the political parties to fulfilling the 30 percent quota for women candidates.
"The commitment of the political parties to putting women on the ticket is inadequate," she said.
Actress Nurul Arifin, who is a Golkar legislative candidates, expressed a similar concern.
She suggested that Golkar give new candidates priority on its list of candidates and sideline politicians who had failed to perform well in the current House.
Nurul was placed third on Golkar's list of candidates for the Karawang and Purwakarta electoral districts in West Java. She said she hoped Golkar executive board members would move her up to second place to improve her chances.
Khofifah of the PKB said that her party had a strong commitment to providing greater opportunities for women in politics. She admitted, however, that a number of PKB branch offices still had some doubts in this regard.